episode nine: Gold Coats and OGs
Lonnie Morris
was sentenced to seven years to life in 1977 for fatally shooting a police officer
been in prison for 40 years, at San Quentin for 35 years
San Quentin
inmates spend years trying to get into San Quentin
San Quentin is a very desirable prison because of its many programs
population is mostly older inmates
inmates can attend yoga, cooking clases, gardening clases, coding clases, and there are many self help groups
sixty-six years old
is dreading the possibility of dying in prison
"they put me on a, outside the gate on the sidewalk and I'll keel over dead. I'd rather that happen than for me to die in prison"
murder is much more rare than one might assume
violence at San Quentin has largely decreased
Andre Eric Watson
been in prison for 20 years
serving 65 years to life for second-degree murder
recently diagnosed with stage three lung cancer
Richard
gold coats/IDAP worker at San Quentin
gold coat
employed by custody to assist the ,medical department
Inmate Disability Assistance Program worker
helps disabled inmates with anything they might need
older inmates, inmates who have just undergone surgeries,
the fourth floor
fourth floor at San Quentin is the floor where very sick inmates stay
inmates are still kept in cells, not hspital beds
inmates dread the fourth floor because there is no interactions when on the fourth floor, inmates are very isolated
just like the 4th floor, inmates avoid going to the hospital because they don't want to accept that they are sick, they want to try to get through it on their own so they don't die in prison
before gold coats existed, Lonnie had to watch his cellmate get very sick, and he had to help him out in the way jay a gold coat worker would
Chose to be a IDAP worker because he felt it was how he can give back
"I figure, if I give back to life, then my life will be given back to me,"
committed murder/2 counts of attempted murder
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